Committing

How to spell committing

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce committing

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does committing mean?

1. verbCarrying out or perpetrating an act, typically one that is wrong or punishable.
2. verbPledging, dedicating, or binding oneself to a course of action, person, or resource.

Committing in a sentence

• The report warned that staff were committing the same data-entry errors every month.

• Before committing the whole budget to one supplier, she asked for a trial order.

• He was caught on camera committing the burglary at the warehouse.

• The manager hesitated about committing to a firm deadline.

Where does committing come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is the present participle of the verb 'commit', which descends from the Latin committere, literally 'to put together' or 'to join', formed from com- meaning 'together' and mittere meaning 'to send' or 'to put'. In Latin the sense broadened from joining things to entrusting something to someone and even to bringing about a deed, especially a bad one, which is why we still 'commit' a crime today. English took the word in the late 1300s, by way of legal and clerical Latin, with meanings of consigning a person to prison and entrusting a matter to someone's charge. The familiar relatives 'mission', 'transmit', and 'submit' all carry the same mittere root for sending. The spelling trap lives in the ending: the stress falls on the second syllable, so the final 't' doubles before -ing, giving 'committing' rather than the tempting but wrong 'commiting'.

How the word is built

• com- (together, fully)
• mit (from Latin mittere: to send)
• -t- (doubled consonant)
• -ing (present participle suffix)